Clint Eastwood ventured into science fiction with Firefox, playing a pilot tasked with stealing a futuristic Soviet aircraft. The film's aerial sequences were inspired by the Death Star trench run from Star Wars, utilizing special effects expert John Dykstra. Despite its success, Firefox was Eastwood's only attempt at launching a blockbuster franchise based on Craig Thomas's novel, choosing not to continue with future installments.

Clint Eastwood has always been the most adventurous and interesting box-office superstar precisely because of his willingness to subvert his iconic screen persona, as evidenced by his creepy performance in the lurid 1984 thriller Tightrope. Moreover, while Eastwoods action films, specifically the Dirty Harry film series, contain a requisite amount of heroic exaggeration, the actor has always projected the sense that he has a firm grip on reality. The most notable exception to this rule is the 1982 techno-thriller film Firefox, which marks the only time...